JULY 7 2017

Welcome to Issue 1031 of Exchange Invest which coincides with the day Boris Becker became the youngest Wimbledon winner in history (1985) and Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed by Ronald Reagan as the first female supreme court judge in the history of the USA (1981).

Kynetix have published a fascinating new white paper on achieving balance in power – it’s a whole new world as storage technologies take a leap forward. Ignore the hype about Volvo building their gas guzzler’s with a few AAA’s alongside to virtue signal, the storage revolution delivers a systemic reshaping the world’s energy dynamics.

You can download the paper by here.

The biggest parish news is Kelly Loeffler concentrating on her vast marketing and communications brief at The ICE, recruiting a new head of IR to operate an office she successfully created and deftly managed for more than a decade.

And there’s more, happy scrolling:

In BigWorld

It’s one of those deep joy moments for rolling news channels which means boredom for the rest of us. The G20 summit this year has the peculiar balance that Hamburg will be full of lefty financially illiterate fruit loops both inside and outside the secure perimeter of the gabfest itself. It’s the “bonkersbots” meets the “wafflebots” for 48 hours of posturing.

As a prelude, here proving there is a parallel universe even on planet earth, is what a couple of the random multiplicity of EU Presidents had to say when they dictated their statement (presumably prior to heading off in separate private jets to help the environment they are so concerned other must think about:)

“More than ever the EU has become a global point of reference for all those who value the principles of liberal democracy and human rights, free and fair trade or concrete actions in facing global challenges, such as climate change, poverty, terrorism and illegal migration…”

In other news, EU decries any notion of free and fair trade e.g. with Britain, despite the clear self harm to the EU27, Italy is chock full of economic migrants to the point of chaos, the Eurozone is at best roughly the same size it was economically 10 years ago and France is just one nation still in a state of emergency. I agree the EU is working hard on poverty, it’s just a pity it isn’t seeking to alleviate it.

Public Markets

LME And The World Gold Council Confirm LMEPrecious Launch On 10 July
MondoVisione

PLY: From FCA boss Andrew Bailey’s pithy speech at Reuters yesterday. Sensible stuff and demonstrating a will to work for the best for Britain and Europe, as opposed to simply abandoning logic to defend a political project in need of reform.

“Authorities should not dictate the location of firms…”Bailey noted while endorsing “mutual recognition” or regulatory cooperation “but not exact mirroring” of rules.

PLY: Bloomberg reveals as sensational headline what has been obvious since time immemorial. The devil is in the details but the legacy media has difficulty with the basic facts in too many cases on these technical issues.

Singapore IPOs Pick Up, Point To Bumper Year For SGX
Nikkei Asian Review

PLY: Here’s hoping this is the start of a risorgimento at SGX.

Africa Has Had Five IPOs This Year, Here’s The List
CNBCAfrica.com

PLY: Or to put ti in perspective, SX was in the doldrums last year for having more IPOs than the entire African continent managed in H1 2017.

PSE Acquires Additional 8% In PDS Holdings
PhilStar

PLY: Philippine exchange edges towards completion of the long running PDS Bond platform saga by acquiring the 500,000 common shares held by Whistler Technologies Services Inc.

London Stock Exchange Group Plc Transaction In Own Shares
MondoVisione

PLY: LedgerX gets registered, can it be running in time to really exploit the current cryptocurrency boom? As advocate for cryptocurrency and DL/Blockchain years before it even hit the niche let alone the mainstream, it’s good to see the CFTC allowing such a platform.

Ethiopia : ECX Seeks To Improve Accessibility
AllAfrica.com

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) has been building regional trading centers to improving its accessibility across the country,.

Strengthening Malta’s Competitive Position
Times of Malta

PLY: News of the upcoming launch of the Malta SE Institutional Securitisations Market (ISM) later this year which will give the exchange its own wholesale platform which appears to compete with the Malta SE’s minority holding in the Irish SE controlled EWSM.

PLY: No sign of the Sebi leopard changing its spots under new Chairman Tyagi.

Career Paths

PLY: Fascinating news from ICE as it names Warren Gardiner as Vice President of Investor Relations, slightly reducing the hefty slate of the long-time doyenne of parish IR Kelly Loeffler. It will be interesting to see how Mr Gardiner adapts to the role running what has long been the best in class exchange IR operation. Good luck to both Warren Gardiner on filling a fascinating position and Kelly on her concentration on what is, let’s face it, merely (sic), the mega portfolio of marketing and communications for The ICE – a role which itself expanded exponentially when ICE bought the PR-magnet of NYSE in particular.

ESMA Management Board member Gerard Rameix has reached the end of his term and been replaced by Giuseppe Vegas of CONSOB. Good luck to both parties.

PLY: NB You may have to click the link on the rhs of the ESMA page for the full release, as the main text body link was not working when I tried.

ESMA Updates MAR Q&A
ESMA

Better Finance Sends Record Number Of Experts To The New EU Financial Services User Group (FSUG), Even Though The EU Decided To Eliminate All Compensation For Its Little Resourced User-Side Experts
MondoVisione

PLY: More evidence of why the EU must face oblivion or deregulation (I always fear it prefers the former in a binary shootout), as it expects free experts to add their input. Simply farcical and not remotely the behaviour of a functional supranational body which is serious about finance, or prosperity.

ESMA Proposes Simplifications For Prospectuses
ESMA

Joint Statement By The Heads Of The IMF, World Bank And WTO On The Need To Reinvigorate Trade To Boost Global Economic Growth
MondoVisione

ISDA Publishes Three Videos On Benchmarks
MondoVisione
Have a great weekend, I’m off to a village Festa and the Marvin wine festival.